Henry and his story

Typing an address into a search engine is easy. A few clicks and keystrokes and the next day you have books at home. It wasn't always that simple. So let me tell you how it all began.

So, first things first. I was born in Concord (no, of course not the aeroplane), in the state of Massachusetts. But that was a very long time ago. I studied at Harvard, though I don't think much of universities. My father made pencils, and for a while I did too, until I started making better ones.

I turned down every well-trodden path and defended my solitary freedom, even at the cost of disappointing the natural expectations of family and friends. I gave up my higher ambitions, as well as the longing for knowledge and action, for the sake of some narrowly defined profession. I strove for a far more complex and whole calling: the art of (knowing how to) live well.

I had no talent for piling up material wealth, but I knew how to be poor without the slightest hint of neglect or want, and my elegance never suffered for it.

In 1845 I built myself a small cabin on the shore of a pond, where I spent two whole years living a life full of work and study. When I had exhausted everything this solitude could offer me, I moved on.

On one occasion I visited a university library to look for some books. The librarian, however, refused to lend them to me because of the lending rules.

Something broke in me then. I couldn't just let it go. So I decided I wouldn't borrow books. I would buy them. And so that I could buy more, I would in time sell the ones I had read. I still maintain that one should read the best books first. There aren't many of them, and your life may run out before you've read them all.

And so I decided to found an antiquarian bookshop that is about exactly that. It doesn't try to invest time and money in superficial things. Instead, it brings sincere joy in books and delight that they will find their way to new readers.

That way I can go on being with you – readers with passion and taste.

Your surveyor, philosopher, poet, writer, naturalist, abolitionist and, from now on, a well-hidden antiquarian bookseller